<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Raindrops on a Sunny Day by MegumitheGreat</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24092296">Raindrops on a Sunny Day</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat'>MegumitheGreat</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Being Lost, Fluff, Injury, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, One Shot, Self-Indulgent</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:42:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,649</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24092296</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Zack and Cloud are lost in a forest after being ambushed.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Zack Fair/Cloud Strife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>52</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Raindrops on a Sunny Day</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Another self-indulgent Zack-caring-for-Cloud fic.  Protective Zack is best Zack.  Cloud trying to help when he can't or shouldn't is an adorable headcanon, too~</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>I’m sorry, Zack.</em>
</p>
<p>The SOLDIER 1st Class opened his eyes slowly to the darkness of a stormy day.  The clouds looming overhead were black and towering, the smell of petrichor just noticeable.  His forehead felt a little sticky, and when he patted it with his arm, he’d found a red streak crumbling away.  He looked around, dazed but regaining his focus, at the thick underbrush.  The canopy of trees only made the forest floor darker.  Behind him was the jagged surface of the cliff which he remembered being at the top of.  Cloud and Tseng had been with him.  They were…heading somewhere for a mission.</p>
<p>He searched his memory for what had happened.  They were riding in the truck.  Cloud had gotten motion sickness as usual, and nothing helped to make it go away.  They pulled over to give him a break.  And then…they were ambushed.</p>
<p>“I guess we must’ve fallen off the cliff,” Zack sighed.  “Anyone there?” he called out.  No response.  “Cloud?”</p>
<p>Zack picked himself up despite being sore from the fall.  He scanned the ground and looked around at the tree branches in search of anyone that had been with them.  He hoped there would be no monsters around, but in the wild outside of Midgar, that was rarely the case.  He didn’t venture too far from where he had fallen, though.  He held hope that someone would come and find him.  As he walked a little farther out, he found a body caught in some of the tree branches closer to the bottom.  Blond spiky hair, a torn and bloodied infantryman uniform, bruised pure white skin.</p>
<p>“Cloud, there you are!” Zack happily called out to him.  Then he noticed he wasn’t moving.  “Hang on, I’m coming!”</p>
<p>The SOLDIER leapt up the branches to his friend, gently picking him up then bracing him for impact when he jumped back down.  Cloud let out a gasp of pain when he landed, making Zack feel sick.  When he was lowered to the ground, Zack loomed over him to check if he was bleeding anywhere.  There was a medium-sized red spot around a hole on the sleeve of his shirt and some scratches from the branches.</p>
<p>“Can you hear me?” Zack asked him.</p>
<p>Cloud let out a little grunt, which couldn’t be determined to be an affirmation or otherwise.  Zack pulled him up into his arms, but even the slightest movement made the infantryman tense up with agony.  It was then that he realized Cloud was breathing with some difficulty.</p>
<p>“I’ve got to open your shirt,” he told him.  “Sorry for the intrusion.”</p>
<p>After opening the shirt to get a look at Cloud’s chest, he found two large bruises across his torso.  Zack was by no means a medical expert, yet he knew some basic protocols to assess injury.  Carefully, he lightly pressed the areas around the bruises, which made Cloud groaned and grit his teeth.</p>
<p>“I think you’ve got some broken ribs,” he concluded.  “And our materia was on the truck, so I can’t heal you.  Cloud, can you hear me?”</p>
<p>“Z-Zack…?” Cloud whispered.  “I’m glad…I’m with you…”</p>
<p>“I’d say the same, but you’re in pretty bad shape.”  Zack tried to prop him up against himself, but again Cloud expressed the pain.  “Okay, let’s not do that.”</p>
<p>“What happened?  All I remember is that we had to stop because I felt sick.”</p>
<p>“We were ambushed after that.”</p>
<p>“By Wutai?”</p>
<p>“Doubt it.  Could be Genesis copies.  But it doesn’t matter now; I don’t know where Tseng is, and there’s a storm coming.  We need to find shelter.”</p>
<p>Cloud tried to stand up on his own, but the grinding of his bones on top of the pain made him more nauseous than the ride to their mission rendezvous.  Zack implored him not to move around.  He was there to help him, after all.  He would help him and protect him until they could find their team.</p>
<p>Zack picked up Cloud in his arms as carefully as he could.  If he bent him too much, he wouldn’t be able to breathe—not that he really could right now.  With every breath he took, the pain just got worse, eliciting a pitiful whine from the young man.  The forest floor wasn’t smooth, so to combat the shock from his footfalls, Zack had to tread lightly.</p>
<p>He searched and searched for somewhere they could stay, but there were no caves around.  With the storm coming, staying under trees wouldn’t protect them from the frigid rain and gusts of wind.  There wasn’t any time to make a makeshift shelter unless he stopped where he was now to make it work.  He was just in front of a thick low-grown tree.</p>
<p>“Ugh, this is the best we can do,” he sighed.</p>
<p>“We can at least use the tree to save time.  Put me down.  I’ll help,” Cloud rasped.</p>
<p>“What?  No!  Cloud, you’re super hurt!”</p>
<p>“It’s fine…I can’t stand the thought of being a burden on you.”</p>
<p>“You’re not a burden!  Don’t push yourself.”</p>
<p>Cloud didn’t listen to him.  Holding where his ribs had cracked, he pulled whatever dead branches he could find toward the tree.  Zack rushed to help him because if Cloud insisted on straining himself and injured himself further, he would never forgive himself.  Together the two of them made something of a human nest under the tree that would serve as part of their roof.  Next, they had to find more sticks and branches to put on top to make sure that no rain would fall on them.</p>
<p>The first rolls of thunder echoed through the forest, prompting Zack to order Cloud to stay inside of the shelter they had made while he finished putting together a makeshift roof.  The infantryman refused because he wanted to help.</p>
<p>“I’m ordering you…as a SOLDIER.  I know you want to help, but you need to rest,” he told him.</p>
<p>“I want to help as…” Cloud stopped short.  Then he simply crawled into the shelter and lay on his back.</p>
<p>Zack was a little perturbed by the way he seemed to just switch off.  Still, he finished the roof and slid it over the top of the shelter and under the leaves.  With his hands on his hips and his chest puffed out, he was proud of the little home they had built for the time being.  He crawled into the shelter with Cloud, laying on his side next to him.</p>
<p>“Good work, partner,” he smiled at him.  He reached over and stroked his hair then cupped his cheek.  “What’s wrong?  Besides some broken ribs.”</p>
<p>“I wanted to help you,” Cloud said dejectedly.  He turned his head to Zack.  “Not because we’re on a mission together, but because I love you.”</p>
<p>Zack offered him a little smile.  “Aw, Cloud, don’t worry about that.  I’m more concerned about you not making things worse.  Just relax, okay?  You don’t have to worry about me!”  He scooted closer to him.  “On the bright side, we’re alone in the middle of nowhere trapped inside of a tiny nest because of a storm.”  He nodded to him.  “You come around here often?”</p>
<p>“Zack!” Cloud giggled before wincing.  “Do you think Tseng and the others will find us?”</p>
<p>“I hope soon.  We need to get you to a doctor.”</p>
<p>Cloud snuck his hand into Zack’s.  “I…don’t want to be found yet,” he hesitantly said.  </p>
<p>Before Zack could protest his sentiment, he told him that he wanted to be alone in his company for some time.  They were in different departments and thus rarely got to see each other outside of missions.  Granted they were still on one, this mission had taken a detour and one that Cloud wasn’t going to complain about.  Zack shared the same sentiment.  Having to keep their relationship secret from everyone in Shin-Ra as well as anyone outside of the company was strenuous.  They could only meet in secret or at night if no one was hanging around either of their sections of the building.  Any even then, it was hard to show affection to each other because someone was always trying to snoop in on them.  There were some in security that hated SOLDIER who looked for any way to tarnish their reputation.  Relationships had to be disclosed within the company before they were ultimately broken up by shifting around and layoffs.  If Zack and Cloud’s relationship was made public to the whole company, both of them would be harassed.  Not every person in the company agreed with their kind of love, and there were more that would look for ways to hold some power over Cloud especially with it.  He was a black sheep among others.  They needed someone to bully, and he was small and unassuming.  Still, Cloud was a resilient man even if quiet and introverted.  His silent strength intrigued Zack, who was the only one he felt comfortable talking to.  He admired him as a friend, SOLDIER, and as a man.</p>
<p>Thunder rumbled louder this time, the first wave of rain crashing down around them.  Cloud peered up at Zack as his superior was beginning to doze off.  His head was slowly falling off his hand, his arm slowly curling around Cloud’s head.  The sound of rain even in a storm was calming, wasn’t it.  Soon enough, Zack was sleeping with his cheek propped up on the crown of Cloud’s head.  The sound of him gently snoring was just as relaxing as the rain.  He wished it didn’t hurt him to move until he decided that he wouldn’t let his injuries get in his way.  He turned on his side so that he was facing Zack.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, Zack,” Cloud whispered.  “I should have just dealt with the motion sickness.  Then maybe we wouldn’t be trapped down here in the middle of nowhere.  The only silver lining is getting to be stuck with you.”  He fell asleep next to him in the comfort of his presence.</p>
<p>Shortly after, he was woken up by a sharp pain in his chest and Zack calling his name in distress.  “What…hap…penned?” Cloud gasped and wheezed.  How strange—he suddenly had trouble breathing.  “Za…ck…?”</p>
<p>Zack didn’t answer him just yet.  He forced Cloud to lay on his back, ordering him not to move.  After he had gone to sleep on his side, his breathing had become irregular and short.  Zack had thought that the injury wasn’t just a few cracked ribs but a perforated lung.  He had even tried to blow air into his air passages to keep him from running out of oxygen.</p>
<p>“I got scared, you know!” Zack told him.</p>
<p>“I’m…I’m sorry…” Cloud apologized once he was on his back again.  “I didn’t mean to scare you.  I wanted to be close to you.”</p>
<p>Zack calmed down enough to offer comfort to him, laying next to him again and petting his head.  “The rain’s stopped,” he told him.  “I’d like to go out and look for the others, but…I can’t put you through that if your injury is worse than I thought.”</p>
<p>“It’s probably because I slept on my side.  It doesn’t hurt as much as before.  See, I’m even breathing okay now.”  He slowly sat up even though Zack tried to get him to stay back down.  “Zack, I’m alright.  I promise.”</p>
<p>Zack pouted at him.  He knew Cloud wasn’t one to disclose what he really felt.  The infantryman was so conscious of being a burden that he defaulted to hiding even the smallest inconvenience.</p>
<p>“You’re lying,” Zack sighed.  “Fine, we’ll go, but as soon as we meet up with Tseng, we need to abort the mission.”</p>
<p>“N-No!  We don’t need to abort it over some minor injuries!  Zack, I’m really oka—”</p>
<p>Cloud fell into a coughing fit from the excitement, only proving Zack’s point and making him worry even more with each cough that was a sledgehammer in his chest.  Then he began to consider that the ribs might not have been the only injury.  What about his legs?  Zack couldn’t carry him on his back with his sword being held there by a large magnet.  It would be harder to carry him in his arms.</p>
<p>“Ah, maybe I can call Tseng!  We should still have reception out here,” Zack remembered.  When he pulled out his cell phone, he found that it had be cracked.  “Ah…Ah!  No, all of our messages!  Every last one of them—gone!”</p>
<p>“I-I can just resend them…!”</p>
<p>“But the conversation!”</p>
<p>Cloud let out a chuckle before he coughed again.  “Even now, you can still be worried about the strangest things.”</p>
<p>“That’s because those were precious!  Cloud, we have to recreate them!  And…And then I’ll back them up or something!  Those messages…I read them every night.”</p>
<p>Cloud never realized how much Zack loved him, and despite how much it hurt his chest, he felt his heart flutter.  It was time to go if Zack wanted a new phone flooded with messages from him.  He let the SOLDIER leave the shelter first then followed him out.  When he tried to stand, he learned that his ankle had been sprained.  Zack didn’t hesitate to catch him and support him as they walked through the forest to an opening somewhere at the base of the cliff they had fallen from.  There was no way that Tseng was out this far away.  They also saw smoke from the edge of the cliff.</p>
<p>“They totaled the truck,” Zack sighed.  “We’re going to be walking back up there.  Let me know when you need a break, okay?  I mean it.  Don’t try to push yourself.”</p>
<p>Cloud smiled at him.  Zack turned away to ogle him in whatever little privacy he could get.  They started down the road to climb back to the edge of the cliff and hopefully to where Tseng and the other infantrymen were.  But before they got too far, Cloud asked for a break when they got to a large rock on the side of the road.  Zack took him over to it, lowering him and checking his breathing by placing his ear at his back and listening.</p>
<p>“I hate not being a doctor…what if I’m doing something wrong?” Zack grumbled.  “There’s no way I’ll let anything else happen to you.”</p>
<p>Cloud watched him circle back around with a lofty smile.  “Hey, Zack, come here,” he beckoned him.  Zack, confused suddenly by his calling, approached him.  He knelt to look at his face because he thought that maybe he was having trouble breathing again.  He checked his eyes for signs of concussion.  Then suddenly, Cloud pecked him.</p>
<p>“A-Ah…!” Zack uttered.  “What was that for?”</p>
<p>“A thank-you for caring,” Cloud softly said.</p>
<p>“You don’t have to thank me for that!  I’m yours, and you’re mine; it’s only natural that I want you to be safe.”  He leaned close to his face.  “And besides, a better thank-you would be some sexy time—after you’ve healed up, of course.  It’d be awful to do it and have you pass out right in the middle from shortness of breath!”</p>
<p>“Z-Zack…I was trying to be open about my feelings!” Cloud pouted.</p>
<p>Zack let out a hearty laugh before poking his forehead.  “And I am as well!  But, hey, I got you to finally stop being so gloomy and doomy!  When we get back, let’s get dinner together again!  Uh, wait, you can’t have alcohol when you’re on pain meds, right?”  Cloud lightly shoved him back by his shoulder before looking back at him with a smirk.</p>
<p>This was why he loved him.  Zack was a kind and funny soul.  The sun finally broke through the clouds that had lightened up now that they had lost the rain in them.  And just like that, Cloud felt warm and safe.  Zack was with him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This fic kind of meandered, but it's cute.  I really like the idea of Zack and Cloud just getting stuck in places with each other and being happy to at least be lost together.  Kind of like Modeoheim!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>